Road to the Crown

"How much of this mortar can be produced and what will be its cost?"

Almost immediately after finishing our matters at the mansion and locating my men in various rooms across Elia's home, we rushed back to the magistrate in order to deal with all the miscellaneous affairs. Taking a short moment to prepare yet another product with the help of my system from something as simple as wheat, I was now holding onto a small pouch filled with a whiteish powder, that would soon be the foundation of the first, profit-oriented enterprise I would start.

"For now, I can only produce small amounts, as its still in the phase of testing. As soon as I will find enough money, resources and time to start up the real production… It still won't be available for the market. Long story short, after taking care of the local needs of Tarnow, I wish to use it to connect those two cities with a modern, high-quality road. And for that end, I will need your cooperation."

Being a town's mayor didn't limit one's responsibility for the city alone, but it stretched one's influence over most of the villages in the direct and more distant proximity. With how Tarnow and Pilzno were now under the power of me and Elia, binding it even closer together was a must!

"Yeah, that might be a good… idea… WHAT THE FUCK!"

As if the meaning of my words required some time to settle inside his brain for Vlad to fully comprehend them, his reaction to my plan took a while to be accurate. While in this moment of history, Commonwealth was still considered a great, world power, the quality of its roads was so bad it was already turning both into legends and a series of jokes across the entire continent.

But there simply never was a need to improve the infrastructure! With how most of the most important trade in the entire country was facilitated with the use of all the subsidiary rivers to the Vistula, making it the main artery of the Crown's lands with the Dnieper river working in a similar way for the easter lands of Ruthenia, connecting cities with roads was never considered an important matter for the nobles, making the crown powerless to change this fact with how limited royal power in the country was.

That's why it has to be a local power initiating this project! That's why I was soo keen on setting up an extensive production of cement! Even if it wasn't as good as asphalt when it came to laying down the roads, it would still be a major improvement to the current technology across entire Europe, while beaking an age-changing material for the Commonwealth itself!

"Don't worry. I already thought about it."

Gracing the Mayor with one of my sweetest smiles, I stretched my hands over my head. With everything happening so fast, I couldn't help but feel tired of all the events of the last few hours. But I still had to finish the last few matters before going to rest!

"First thing first, as soon as the production will start, I will designate a team of workers from my side with a precise plan for how the road will be built. At the same time, I will push one of my retainers to the capital, in order to not only gain some financing from the Crown - and since the King just got elected, he will most likely be rather eager to support initiatives like that at the very beginning of his reign - and guarantee us a law that will allow us to tax all the villages and small cities that the road will go through. In this way, the cost itself should be negligible, outside of the initial investment."

Taking a sip of the coffee that Vlad once again offered us, I felt the familiar warmth spreading through my body and mind, clearing some of the clogs of exhaustion that slowed down the processing speed of my brain. I would love to set up local production of coffee, but even with the system, unless I was willing to sacrifice every other project on creating a greenhouse, and focusing all my attention in Politics on starting a new war with Ottoman Empire (Turkey in the height of its power in history) in order to steal the fresh coffee beans that they did their best to monopolise, there was no way for me to actually do anything aimed at improving the accessibility of this expensive plant.

"When all the details will be confirmed, I will push someone to notify you about it, while forwarding the first batch of the powdered mortar along with the instructions on how to build the road. After all, it's not as easy as just adding water and pouring it on the ground!"

While in theory, it was Elia that should lead the negotiations here, since I was the one that had all information about the cement and overall idea how it would work, she could only sit beside be and alternate her gaze between the mayor and me.

"If we get to build the road from the two ends at the same time, I think we could finish it before the end of May. As for how we will cover the initial costs… Is the soup that I asked for already prepared?"

There were quite a lot of things that were worth their weight in gold in this time and age. At first, when I was considering this matter, I thought about using the local ingredients that were simply undiscovered or unpopular among wider masses, but in the end, after learning the trick, anyone interested could make something similar just by going on a trip and plucking some wild herbs. That's when the sour cream soup that I made back in Tarnow, and the memory that popped up in my head back then, came into play.

There was one spice that could be made out of literally anything, that albeit scorned upon in the future as it became popular to eat stuff without it, it nevertheless, revolutionalised the culinary market of the entire world!

Spices… They were the source of as much wealth as pain and mourning, with how hard it was to import them from the far east. That's why, instead of investing some ridiculous amount of money into creating my own fleet that would take the risk of sailing all the way across entire Africa in order to reach the lands where the spices grew… I decided to make one that was wildly popular in the entire world, and turn it into a spice, that took hold of the entire market of the entire eastern and central Europe!

Curry? That's something only Asians, Indians and some of the quirky Europeans ate. While I had the privilege of trying it myself back in the future, I never considered it as anything more than just an exotic food. Salt? While its importance was insane, Commonwealth was one of those rare countries where no one could ever lack this resource, with the legendary Wieliczkan salt mines!

That's way, the only way to change the world of Europan kitchens, laid in the mixture of several things I prepared in advance, prior to leaving a mansion, all based on some random vegetables mixed into powder, a bit of salt and system synthesised…

Monosodium Glutamate!

Or in simpler words, the essence of taste, source of umami, and the King of all the spices across the world, gluten!

"Yeah, it should be done already. Marie! Can you ask the servants to bring the soup?"

Back when I asked Vlad to prepare it, I could easily read the confusion and puzzlement on his face, yet he didn't waste our time on arguing, and simply followed my request. Now, when the secret of my earlier wish was about to unveil, he leaned over the table, as if eager to see what I was about to do with the soup to make it such an important point of this meeting.

Waiting for just a moment for the servants to bring the soup, they even brough a small stool with themselves, putting the entire, big cauldron filled with what looked like a chicken-stock on it and leaving right away. Taking two bowls that I actually brought with myself, I submerged them into the pot, filling about half of them with the thick liquid, before putting them on Vlad's table, with no regard for how the droplets of the soup instantly dirtying his workplace.

As if magician pulling out a rabbit from a seemingly empty hat, I brough out the small pouch filled with the mix of various herbs, vegetables, salt and gluten, before pouting a bit of its content into one of the bowls and mixing it all with a spoon of mine.

At first, I wanted to recreate the legendary Vageta (exchange first a for e and you have the real name) spite that took the markets of the central and eastern Europe by the storm, but no matter how hard I tried or thought, I couldn't find any clue how to turn this whiteish powder into a yellow one! But outside of the colour factor, my earlier tests already proved that all the other aspects of this spice were working just as intended!

"Please, have a taste of the both, and tell me what do you think!"